


Trill

by rosesofenvy



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: F/M, M/M, i'm writing a lot of these things from experience, if this turns into more than ten chapters someone stop me, my authors notes explain things, not all ships will be relationships, orchestraAU, practically all schools will be involved, so many characters will be involved, some characters will be able to play more than one instrument, some will be more friendly, you don't even understand
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-02-01
Updated: 2015-07-19
Packaged: 2018-03-10 01:51:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 15,437
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3272348
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rosesofenvy/pseuds/rosesofenvy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>College Orchestra AU: Hinata is a prodigy violinist who is learning the ways of the musical world by attending a musical college. It turns out he's going to have a lot of fun.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Danse Bacchanale

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Playing in an orchestra is like a sport, we're all very competitive, it's mentally and physically taxing (my aaaarms, and wrists, and fingers) and if you believe yourself to be better than all the rest, then your section will fall apart. This was my inspiration..
> 
> Their instruments are based off my own judgement as a violinist (although I know some could be switched) and the pieces I mention will be based off of either things I've played or things I've heard.
> 
> They're all college students in the AU, the first years are freshmen but that's all I'll say with certainty. All the characters/schools/pairings will be centered at some point. Any confusing/vague orchestral terms will be defined at the end of chapters. College will be tentatively described since I'm just a highschooler.
> 
> Final note: Their characters are tough to keep in character, so I'm trying my damn best but they probably won't be perfect. I'm also trying to follow the plotline the best I can, although there will be definite differences.
> 
> I hope this story is enjoyable!

Hinata stares up in awe at the large building the tour group had stopped in front of, his grip tightens on the papers containing the information and their schedules.  
  
"Whoooaa!!" He exclaims, "The dorms are huge!" He ignores the sprinkling of laughter he hears from the rest of his tour group, who'd listened to his other exclamations of awe throughout the entire trip. He grins and follows after their somewhat exasperated tour guide.  
  
 "Your dorm assignments are in your schedules, if you can't find it then ask me for help, we're meeting back in the lobby after you've all found your rooms," The guide says almost boredly. Hinata glances at his schedule, having to scan the information for a few moments before finding the number. He follows the others actions of splitting up to find their rooms, dashing down halls until he finds the hall where the room should be. As he's searching for it, he accidentally runs into someone.  
  
"Hey, watch where you're going, dumbass," The guy immediately snaps after picking himself up off of the ground. He glares at Hinata, making the shorter immediately flinch back before getting annoyed.  
  
"Oh y-you wanna fight?" Hinata stutters,  taking a few steps back with his fists raised.  
  
"Shut up," The guy growls under under his breath, crossing his arms over his chest with an even more annoyed glance at Hinata.  
  
Hinata rolls his eyes and looks at his schedule, then up at the door. "Oh, this is my room!" He grins, seeing the numbers, 109, were the same as on his schedule. An irritated sound comes from the guy he'd knocked over. "What?"  
  
The guy looks away, obviously displeased, "It seems we're roommates."  
  
"Geh!" Hinata says, "Really? Wow, what a way to meet my roommate! Oh, we should introduce ourselves obviously,  I'm Hinata Shoyou! Sorry I ran into you!" He didn't really want to apologize to the rude guy, but he didn't want his roommate to be mad at him.  
  
"Kageyama Tobio," Kageyama replies curtly, which makes Hinata frown.  
  
"You know we should try to get along since we're going to be roommates."  
  
Kageyama snorts, "Whatever, you should probably head back to your tour group, we're the only ones still here."  
  
Hinata glances around and yelps, "I never even noticed!" With that he runs down the hall to the staircase, skipping steps to get to the first floor and to the lobby area. The tour guide was just taking count when he shows up, and without a second of rest he leads them off again.  
  
A glance back lets him catch sight of Kageyama who is joining up with another group. He wonders what Kageyama will be doing at the college...

* * *

  
  
"At least I don't have too much stuff," Hinata says optimistically as he puts the two storage containers of his belongings on the bed. Their room wasn't too small, but there was an obvious division between the room for each person. And there was double of all the furniture, which was just a bed and a desk. He's just going to keep his clothes in the bin he'd brought them in, letting Kageyama (who'd yet to show up) use the closet.  
  
After emptying them out, putting up the few posters he'd brought (of his favorite piece he'd ever played and of the volleyball team he'd been rooting for this season) and folding and organizing all of his clothes and shoes in an easy to get to way, he digs out his music stand and violin.  
  
He isn't going to play, since that isn't allowed in the dorms, but he's just going to make sure that nothing broke on the ride over, that would really suck.  
  
The wood, just polished, gleams under the fluorescent lights. Everything is intact, although after brushing his thumb over the strings he can tell it'd been knocked out of tune. Wincing at the off pitch, he packs the instrument back up and sets it on the ground at the end of his bed, folding up the stand to rest on top of it.  
  
The door opening catches his attention, and Kageyama walks in with an annoyed look on his face. He drops the storage box he's holding on the bed, walking out to grab another one. Hinata watches him closely, still trying to figure out what he was here for. He doesn't have to wait long for an answer.  
  
"You're here for orchestra too!" He exclaims after seeing Kageyama carry in an case that seemed old and worn.  
  
"Implying that's what you're here for?" Kageyama questions with an annoyed tone.  
  
"Yeah! I'm a violinist, what do you play?" Hinata asks curiously, trying to gauge the size of the instrument from the case, he could always be a violist.  
  
"Violin, but I'm more studying music theory," Kageyama answers, starting to unpack his clothes.  
  
"Ew," Hinata replies, making a face, "Theory is no fun, I'm going for music performance, it's much better!"  
  
Kageyama casts a sideways glare his way, "Theory is just as fun as performance." The blunt statement makes Hinata shake his head in disagreement.  
  
"No way, with theory you have to learn boring technical stuff, with performance you can awe the audience, they go all "waah" and "wow!" because of how you play!" Hinata exclaims, making exaggerated hand motions and nearly falling off his bed.  
  
"But if you mess up then all that hard work is for nothing," Kageyama replies curtly, putting the now empty bin on the ground and unpacking the other one. His movements seem more violent than before.  
  
"Whatever," Hinata shrugs, taking out his laptop. It was getting pretty late, so once Kageyama stopped moving around so much he would probably try to sleep. Before Hinata could put in his earbuds and listen to the new solo he'd found, he notices Kageyama gathering together his instrument and what look like books.  
  
"Where are you going?" He questions, glancing between the time, near nine, and Kageyama in an attempt to figure out where he would be going.  
  
"I have late lessons," Kageyama replies, walking out the door before Hinata could say another word. Hinata huffs in annoyance with how high and mighty his roommate seems.  
  
"Maybe I should start taking lessons," Hinata says aloud to himself, before shrugging and restarting the video from the beginning.

* * *

  
"Late late late late," Hinata mutters quietly to himself as he digs through his clothes and eventually getting together an outfit he deemed decent. He ensures that his schedule is in his pocket before grabbing his violin and running off to the main building that held the performance classes in the west wing.  
  
Class starts five minutes after the time written on the schedule, which Hinata is glad for as he jogs into the room just as the clock hits ten thirty. He technically has another five minutes to get ready. The few people already in the room turn to look at him curiously, but don't stare for too long as they have to get their own instruments out.  
  
A cello, viola, and two violins are already getting their stuff out and ready, quietly chatting with each other. Hinata hesitantly sits in the third chair of the first section, not really sure if there was a specific place he should sit.  
  
"Oho, I see we've already got an ambitious freshmen," One of the violins say with a grin that almost seems menacing.  
  
"Tanaka, this is a small class, the freshman could probably sit first chair if he wanted," The cellist says in an almost reprimanding manner. Hinata looks at the first seat with surprise, but doesn't move to sit, instead still getting his violin out.  
  
A few more people trickle in, another cello and what he assumes are a violist and violinist. They all take spots they seem to be used to, filing in beside or behind the people already sitting, although Hinata is the only one sitting in the first violin section.  
  
That doesn't last too long, as Kageyama walks in, followed by two freshmen Hinata had seen in another tour group yesterday. Kageyama looks at the first chair for a second before setting his case down beside it, quickly unpacking.  
  
One of the freshmen, the one with brown hair, goes over to the viola section, and the blond one sighs and moves to sit beside Hinata.  
  
It's ten thirty five exactly when the teacher walks in, looking like he'd ran all the way there. Folders packed full of copied music are clutched in his arms.  
  
"Sorry I'm a bit late, the copier wasn't cooperating," He says in explanation as he walks up to the podium, carefully putting the folders on the stand set up in front of the podium.  
  
"That's what you get for copying music last minute, Takeda," The cellist says with a small smile.  
  
"Well at least I did!" Mr. Takeda replies, smiling as he hands the cellist copies of the music. He passes out the music to all the sections, pausing when he gets to the firsts.  
  
"Uh, do you want to move up? I think there's only three of you," He says to Hinata.  
  
"Oh! I didn't realize," Hinata replies, quickly moving to beside Kageyama, with a cautious glance to the taller.  
  
After the first round of music had been passed out, Mr. Takeda claps his hands together, "Ok! I'm Mr. Takeda, except please call me Takeda, and this is the chamber group, which has practices twice a day for four days of the week." He glances around the room, "I think there's a few people missing..."  
  
"Two aren't going to be in this class anymore, they switched majors last minute," The second chair cellist says.  
  
"Really Ennoshita? I guess the rosters aren't up to date." Takeda says, sounding surprised as he glances down at a paper, making a few quick notes.  
  
"Asahi will be here tomorrow, his flight got delayed," The second chair second violin says once Takeda looks up again.  
  
"Oh good, he's the only bass still," Takeda says, obviously relieved.  
  
"We're going to need to recruit another bass then, in two years he'll graduate," The second chair continues to say, sounding genuinely concerned.  
  
"We'll cross that bridge when we get there," Takeda replies with a small wave of his hand. He looks around the room with another cursory glance. "So we have four freshmen this year, that's surprising."  
  
"Why's it surprising?" Hinata asks curiously, looking around the room. It was a pretty small chamber group...  
  
"We had a lot of freshmen last year, but a lot of seniors graduated," The cellist answers.  
  
"Oooh," Hinata says in realization, the same situation had happened at his old highschool.  
  
"Still sort of surprising, either way, I don't think seating auditions will take place for a bit, if we'll even need them since you all seem to know where you're sitting," He looks at the older members.  
  
"Whatever you think's best Takeda," The cellist says. Hinata has a feeling he's more of the leader of the orchestra, probably a senior.  
  
"Alright, final thing before we sight read, the ever boring introductions," Takeda says, looking at the freshmen mainly, "First names will suffice for the time being."  
  
"Kageyama," The violinist says almost tiredly.  
  
"Hinata!" His introduction is a stark contrast to Kageyama's.  
  
"Tsukishima," The blond says boredly from behind Kageyama, ignoring the few glances he gets.  
  
"Yamaguchi," Hinata notices that the other freshmen is a violist.  
  
The upperclassmen quickly list out their names as well, starting with the second violins and moving through the rest of the sections.  
  
"Now that that's over with, please look at the piece," Takeda says, sifting through his music to pull out a score, laying it out across the other stack of music.  
  
"[Danse Bacchanale](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9XT72VAk1M0&list=PLPoK68oTWweW9c9B-kCDiRz_QA5G2pH3i&index=3)," Sugawara, the first chair violist, comments, flipping through the music, "Must you torture us in this way Takeda?" Similar sounds of discontent follow the violist's comment  
  
"This looks hard," Hinata whines, already disliking the look of it. Too many sixteenth notes and position jumps. He can hear Tsukishima say something about it appearing easy, but doesn't have any time to say something back as Takeda continues to speak.  
  
"I'm thinking this'll be one of the pieces we'll take to District Contest, if we can perfect it," Takeda says, nervously looking at the score and up at them, "I know it looks a bit intimidating, but I bet it'll be fun!"  
  
Except it really wasn't.  
  
Although they skipped past the first three measures of solo, the next few parts weren't much better. Hinata was right when he said he didn't think the sixteenth notes would be fun.  
  
"Ok, first things, The violins can't keep up, but they're rushing at the same time, you guys need to chill out," He says to both the first and second sections.  
  
"But the second part is so boring and easy!" Nishinoya huffs, leaning back in his chair.  
  
"You can have the first part then!" Hinata replies, "This is so hard!"  
  
"Haha! Like I'd want to play that!" Nishinoya laughs, after glancing at the music ,"I'll stick to the second part."  
  
"Uhm, Kageyama I think you're rushing, and Hinata you're lagging, the first violin's part is the melody for the beginning of the piece so we need it to be together," Takeda says. "And Tsukishima, you're keeping up with Kageyama, but you're playing pretty quietly so it's hard to tell."  
  
Hinata stiffens as he realizes he's the only one playing too slowly, then he huffs out an annoyed sigh, "So I need to play faster right?"  
  
"The main thing is to match first chair, so if you can then yes," Takeda says. Hinata nods and looks at the notes closely. He knows what he needs to play, but getting the rhythm right is what is giving him trouble.  
  
"Alright, lets try again and see how far we get," Takeda says, tapping his foot for the tempo, brandishing the baton. They get further this time, only stopping as the viola's got off tempo from the syncopation.  
  
"This is tough," Daichi sighs, tapping his fingers on the neck of his cello.  
  
"That's why I want to take this one to District Contest, this is also an arranged version, since the actual version is for a full orchestra, so the difficulty is increased a bit more," Takeda says sheepishly.  
  
"It'll take a lot of practice...we'll probably be able to get it," Sugawara comments, already marking things in his music.  
  
"Exactly!" Takeda grins, "And now the next piece..."

* * *

  
  
Two hours and three arguments later, Takeda announces the class over and most of them quickly gather their things to head to the next class. Hinata has another few hours before his class, english, so he decides to take that time to practice.  
  
Taking up a large portion of the west side of campus is what's called the "practice building". It's composed of rooms, most with pianos, that people can use to practice, or if they take lessons from a teacher, where the lessons take place.  
  
This is where Hinata heads to, deciding to go up to the second floor of the three floored building. The rooms are soundproof, but the doors have little windows that he can look through. Only two of the rooms (of the twenty) on the floor are occupied. He takes room number ten, mostly because the window has a view clear across the campus.  
  
He signs his name on the sheet handing by the door, seeing only one other person had been there before him. They'd practiced for three hours. He was only going to kill an hour, maybe a bit less so that he could get a snack before english. He should look into lesson's too, he hadn't taken any since the summer.  
  
Hinata carefully takes out his violin, thinking back to when he'd gotten it. He'd really only started playing recently, been called a prodigy since his freshmen year of highschool, since he'd only gotten a violin and joined the orchestra then. He'd always wanted to play, but had been unable to since lesson teachers were hard to find where he'd lived.  
  
 _"Your improvisational skills are the best thing you've got, I don't even believe it."_  
  
He'd practiced too, but he was able to climb to chamber orchestra within a year. He'd auditioned for Karasuno College, among a few others, and was accepted to them all. Karasuno was an arts based college, but also offered normal college classes, which he decided to take mostly for a back-up plan.  
  
Focusing on practicing, he lines up the music in order, deciding to just run through the solo he'd decided to work on, then work through the school stuff as much as he could.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes I know I should be working on my other stories instead of starting new ones.
> 
> It probably wasn't a good idea to post this while AO3 is having issues.


	2. St. Pauls Suite

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> True panic is when you think you deleted your final draft. Turns out that it autosaved.
> 
> Anyway.
> 
> I performed in a Solo and Ensemble District Contest a few days ago which really inspired me to write more for this story. I'm honestly surprised with all the feedback I've gotten, thank you all for your kind comments! I'm glad you're all enjoying the story!
> 
> I put a link for the song St. Paul's Suite whenever Takeda mentioned it in case anyone's curious to what it sounds like. I'll probably add one for Danse Bacchanale as well.

* * *

 

 _"Kageyama Tobio received a Gold Rating for District and will now be continuing to State. Oikawa Tooru will also be competing in State and has received a perfect rating for District. Congratulations to these violinists."_  
  
"So why don't you like performance Kageyama? You're pretty good," Hinata asks while laying down on his bed in their shared room. He's absently trying to work on the english homework, but he'd noticed Kageyama working on something in the book for music theory and was curious.  
  
"Why do you want to know?" Is the snapped reply, making Hinata sit up to look more fully at Kageyama, eyebrows creasing together.  
  
"Because you don't seem to like it that much and I'm curious," Hinata replies, annoyed at how quick Kageyama was to cut him off.  
  
Kageyama is silent, and Hinata is about to ask him again when he finally answers, "I made a mistake once alright? Just leave it."  
  
Realizing there was a line not to be crossed, Hinata backs off, but narrows his eyes at Kageyama's tone. Now he was really interested, maybe there was someone who knew what happened to make Kageyama dislike performing so much.  
  
With a small shrug to himself he returns to working on the english assignment, but he still wasn't very focused on it, the paper wasn't due till next week anyway.  
  
"Hey Kageyama, who do you take lessons from?" Hinata asks, rolling over onto his side to look solely at Kageyama.  
  
"A tutor that's here," Kageyama replies shortly, "Why?"  
  
"Because I need to take lessons and I don't know who to ask," Hinata answers with a slight whine to his voice. Kageyama turns to look at him so fast that Hinata's afraid he got whiplash.  
  
"You don't take lessons?!"  
  
Hinata shrugs, "Never had to, but I figured I probably should since that's what my highschool teacher told me to do."  
  
Kageyama stares at him in open mouthed shock for a few seconds, before shaking his head in disbelief, "There's no way."  
  
"What do you mean there's no way?" Hinata asks, scowling, "You don't think I'm a good player?"  
  
Kageyama raises an eyebrow, "I didn't say that, it's just hard to believe that you're so good but don't have a private teacher."  
  
"Well how long have you had a private teacher?" Hinata asks haughtily, crossing his arms.  
  
"Since elementary school," Kageyama answers plainly.  
  
"Are you serious!? That's ridiculous!" Hinata gasps. To think Kageyama had been playing since he was in elementary school when Hinata had just started a few years ago.  
  
"That's ridiculous? What's up with your standards?" Kageyama accuses, "You realize that's when a lot of people start playing right?"  
  
"Gah, seriously?!" Hinata pales, eyes wide.  
  
Kageyama looks up at the ceiling in exasperation and takes a deep breath, "Yes, why are you so surprised by this?"  
  
Hinata looks down at his fingers, poking them together, "I only started to play in highschool," He mumbles. When Kageyama stays silent, he hesitantly looks up, and sees the pure shock on the others face.  
  
"That's impossible," Kageyama says bluntly after a few moments, but shock overshadows the rudeness in his tone.  
  
"Well obviously it's not if I could do it!" Hinata protests, frowning angrily.  
  
Kageyama shakes his head and looks away muttering under his breath.  
  
"What?" Hinata asks defensively, crossing his arms.  
  
"Nothing," Kageyama barks back, standing and moving around the room to gather his things, "I've got lessons, bye."  
  
Hinata stares at his roommates back as he leaves, having heard the words muttered quite clearly, "Fucking prodigies."

* * *

  
  
Daichi gets to the room earlier than usual, and is surprised to see someone already there, looking through the folders of music resting on the podium.  
  
"Ah Michimiya, haven't seen you around for a bit," Daichi greets as he walks in, laying his bag and cello beside his chair. The girl starts a bit at the voice, but turns with a smile.  
  
"Schedule too full and money too low," Michimiya says with a sheepish grin, "How's it going Sawamura?"  
  
Daichi shrugs, "Pretty well considering it's the beginning of another year, the new group of freshmen seems promising though,"  
  
"Aw, I wish I could be here to play with you guys," Michimiya says sadly, looking over at the music.  
  
"We all with you were here too, you girls certainly made a difference," Daichi replies with a small smile.  
  
"If only we had the money to attend both colleges, but at least we're all getting pretty far with our medical programs," Michimiya says optimistically, not letting herself get down.  
  
"I'm glad, you know I'm sure Takeda wouldn't be completely against you guys coming in to play with us a few times," Daichi comments, knowing how soft hearted the conductor could be.  
  
Michimiya shakes her head quickly, "Oh no, I wouldn't want to impose, It's not like I never play, I just miss playing in a larger ensemble. Our quartet is fun but..." She looks around the room with a melancholy gaze, "It's not quite the same."  
  
Daichi nods knowingly, and they're both startled by the door opening. Sugawara sighs as he brushes droplets of water off of his clothes, looking up and noticing Michimiya.  
  
"Oh, hello Michimiya, didn't know you'd be here!" He grins, setting his case down beside his chair and giving her a quick hug.  
  
"Hi Suga! It's been awhile since I've been around here," She says as she takes a step back.  
  
"I'm guessing you only stopped by to say hi," Sugawara says, noticing that she was still wearing the somewhat heavy coat more meant for the cooler and rainier weather outside.  
  
Michimiya gasps, "Oh that's right, I need to hurry to my human anatomy class!" She glances at a small watch around her wrist, cursing under her breath. She gives them both a quick hug, "I promise to visit again once I have time!"  
  
"We'll look forward to it!" Sugawara yells after her, earning a quick grin as she runs out the door and down the hall out of sight.  
  
"I sometimes wish she'd stuck with cello, they were all brilliant players," Daichi comments, walking back to his seat to begin unpacking, class was about to start soon.  
  
"But they're all brilliant med students, plus they keep up with their quartet," Sugawara replies, "It was their own decisions." Daichi hums in response, but doesn't say anything as Tanaka and Nishinoya walk in, arguing about which of them had the more difficult divisi part.  
  
Takeda walks in behind them, looking deep in thought as he lays his bag down beside the podium before walking over to Sugawara.  
  
"Sugawara, have you looked at the first and second violin parts for [St. Paul's Suite](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pRRtmrjWsPE&index=10&list=PLPoK68oTWweW9c9B-kCDiRz_QA5G2pH3i) at all?" He asks, voice slightly hopeful. Sugawara seems a bit surprised but nods.  
  
"I was looking over them last night, the chromatic triplets are rather tough, but with practice they're simple," He explains, reaching into his bag to pull out the parts, "I also wrote in fingerings that should work."  
  
"You're a lifesaver Sugawara," Takeda sighs in relief, "I didn't even think about writing in fingerings for them."  
  
Sugawara smiles and hands him the violin parts, "I'm guessing that's what we'll be going over today?"  
  
"Unfortunately so," Takeda says, before moving to stand on the podium, "It'll certainly be a drill exercise day, I might have you help them if need be Sugawara"  
  
Sugawara makes a face at those words, which Daichi laughs at for a moment before both of them move to get out their music and setting it up on the stand. The freshmen walk in soon enough, and Sugawara almost feels bad for them as they sit down, knowing that they would have a long rehearsal ahead of them.

* * *

  
  
"Ok stop!" Takeda says, sounding ruffled. He runs his fingers through his hair in exasperation as he looks down at the score. "We need to go over that part again, firsts and seconds only, cellos and viola's sit out."  
  
Hinata winces as he begins playing, already knowing that he's getting the notes wrong, and the seconds stop altogether, scowling at the music in front of them.  
  
"These damn triplets," Kageyama growls once the line is over and they all stop in unison. Hinata whines about the weird accidentals, '-fingers don't bend that way!'- and sullenly tries to pluck it out.  
  
"Sugawara can you show them how to do the fingerings?" Takeda asks after a few moments of silence, a pleading glance at the violist. Sugawara seems only slightly surprised at the recognition but shrugs and stands, putting his viola on the chair behind him.  
  
"May I?" He asks Kageyama, holding a hand out to the violin. Kageyama hesitantly hands over his instrument, but stares wide eyed at Sugawara as the violist plays the first violin part perfectly, over-exaggerating the shifts for them before stopping as it gets back into the melody.  
  
"You're in second and fourth for a few notes in there, but otherwise it's just straight shifts from first to third," He explains as he hands the violin back to Kageyama, "It took a bit of drilling."  
  
"You can play violin Sugawara?" Kageyama asks incredulously, gaze flitting between his instrument and Sugawara. The violist smiles sheepishly.  
  
"Only a little, I'm better at viola," Suga assures, he wishes that they had been more focused on the chromatics instead of the fact that he could play violin. Kageyama is too distracted with interrogating Sugawara to notice Daichi's look of disapproval that's aimed at Suga.  
  
"But to play like that you'd have to study for years!" Kageyama insists, jabbing his bow at the sheet music. Sugawara just shakes his head.  
  
"Not particularly, I've just been doing duo studies," Sugawara answers.  
  
"Waaah, you're so cool Sugawara! I wanna learn how to play more instruments too!" Hinata shouts, grinning. Suga ruffles the shorter's already messy hair.  
  
"It's harder than you think," He chuckles, "Especially if you're highly experienced with your instrument, it worked out pretty well for me, but I can't speak for anyone else."  
  
Hinata pouts, but doesn't say anything as Takeda taps his baton against the stand, regathering their attention, "Do you guys understand it better now?" He asks the firsts.  
  
"Yes," Kageyama answers immediately.  
  
"Kinda," Hinata says at the same time, sending a sideways glance to Kageyama who glares slightly in response.  
  
"Well I didn't expect you guys to get it immediately, it'll just take a bit of practice," Takeda says in understanding, "And on that note, lets run it from box eight again."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I couldn't remember any of the other female volleyball players names so I just kinda...made that part really vague...I'll look them up later, I promise! Yachi and Kiyoko will also be involved soon enough, I have plans for them ;0 Plot for this story is slowly but surely being added in.
> 
> I have another Haikyuu AU planned (Someone stop me, it'll be a long one) that I should be posting soon, and an update for A Search for Wings should be posted soon as well (hopefully I can actually fit some plot into that one) in case any of you guys are actually interested in that.


	3. Don Pasquale

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Backstory stuff? Backstory stuff!
> 
> I'm planning on doing an Aoba Johsai (aka Oikawa and Iwazumi centric) chapter for the next update, then after that Nekoma will make an appearance. Or they might happen in the same chapter. Either way it will be occurring soon enough.
> 
> (Jeez, writing any Haikyuu!! fics is really tough because I'm so concerned for the updates in the manga, it's so awful how emotional I am. I don't know who I'm rooting for either, it's getting to be a problem.)

* * *

  
As class ends all of them hurry to pack up, either to make it to a next class or just to get out so that they could relax. However Daichi stays back a bit later, noticing how Sugawara was taking his time packing up his viola, making sure to rub off the flecks of rosin gathering around its edges.  
  
Once he has everything ready for when he has to leave, Daichi walks over to Sugawara. "You know, you shouldn't put yourself down Sugawara."  
  
"Believe me Daichi, I'm not," Sugawara replies softly, folding his shoulder rest and placing it in the pocket at the base of his case. He avoids making eye contact with Daichi as he zips the case shut, the metallic ring of the zipper breaking the silence.  
  
"You're starting to sound like Asahi you know, you're a good player so you should at least be proud of it." Daichi's voice is tense with annoyance.  
  
Sugawara stiffens, but tilts his head to the side with a slight smile, "I know Daichi." Leaving it at that, he shrugs on his jacket and slings his case over his shoulder and book bag over the other, walking out before Daichi could say anything in response.  
  
Daichi stares at the door as it falls shut, silently seething at what Sugawara had said. Sugawara was genuinely a good violin player, he'd started out as one after all. It was only after highschool, when they'd lost all their viola players in their small orchestra, that Sugawara offered to help out the viola's.  
  
However with that he had to make the decision on whether or not to stick with viola or violin, and in the end he chose viola. He was a great viola player, but Daichi could tell that he sometimes regretted leaving violin behind.  
  
 _"Are you not taking lessons on Tuesday's anymore?" Daichi asks in curiosity, looking up from the spot he was trying to polish on his cello. Suga doesn't look up as he gently rubs away the white specks of rosin, nodding._  
  
 _"I'm taking viola lessons," He replies in a quiet voice._  
  
 _Daichi stops moving, looking up at Suga in shock, "You're not pursuing violin?"_  
  
 _Sugawara doesn't want to answer, that's obvious by the way he keeps his gaze down, "We need more viola players, and we already have plenty of strong violins, I'm more needed as a viola player."_  
  
 _"Suga! That's just-"_  
  
 _"I've already made up my mind Daichi," Sugawara interrupts him, finally meeting his gaze with a gentle smile, "My teacher understands, I've scheduled a twice a month lesson with my violin teacher, but three days a week with my viola teacher until I can scale back to once a week."_  
  
 _Daichi is shocked speechless, he would've never thought Sugawara would actually switch instruments, even though the conductor had been talking with him about it._ _More like insisting that Sugawara start playing viola._  
  
 _"I'll still play the duet with you for the District Solo Contest, and for the concert, but then I will audition for my seat in the viola section," Suga explains, sitting back as he folds the microfiber cloth to fit in it's container._  
  
 _"You're serious..."_  
  
Daichi frowns, he still couldn't believe it some days, that Sugawara had chosen viola over violin. As his roommate, he knew when Sugawara went to practice, always taking his violin even though most days he didn't have the time to even unpack it.  
  
Despite wanting to tell Sugawara to just be a violinist again, Daichi knows that it's not his choice to influence, and knows that Sugawara won't be swayed from his current decision.  
  
Gathering together his things, Daichi heads back to their dorms, deciding to practice more later today.

* * *

Sugawara forces himself to calm down as he walks back to their shared dorm room, knowing that Daichi was just very perceptive to how he was really feeling. He loved playing violin as much as he did viola.  
  
He knows that in choosing viola he _should_ completely leave behind violin, but he could never bring himself to sell his violin, instead letting himself practice with it when there's the rare occasion that he has time.  
  
It's not right for him to think that he should be a violinist again, it makes him a selfish player. A selfish player means a disjointed section and a fractured orchestra. Unclenching his fists, he relaxes, deciding to work on biology homework for tonight, and just practice early tomorrow morning.

* * *

  
"Asahi! You're finally back!"  
  
Hinata looks up at the shout, seeing someone walking in, Nishinoya running to greet him.  
  
"Sorry about my flight being delayed," Asahi replies sheepishly, "The weather got bad earlier than I thought."  
  
"Glad you're back, we've missed our bass," Takeda greets with a smile, moving past the two of them to stand on the podium, looking through the thick stacks of music to begin picking out the bass parts.  
  
"How did you do?" Nishinoya asks, walking with Asahi back to the cello and bass room.  
  
"Placed with a silver, but I've earned some recommendations for some symphonies," Asahi answers, sounding embarrassed.  
  
"That's great Asahi! You're already being offered jobs," Sugawara exclaims, joining in on the conversation.  
  
"Only a few, some from America and Europe, I'm not sure if I'll accept any of them," Asahi says as he gets out a bow, moving to set it on a stand.  
  
"That's impressive Asahi," Takeda says, "It was a great idea for you to try and place nationally."  
  
Hinata starts slightly at hearing that, the bassist had been placed nationally? That's why he'd been gone, to think he's playing in an orchestra with someone so high caliber!  
  
"Oh, this is our bassist by the way," Daichi says, looking at the four freshmen, "He is a fragile being so make sure to beat up on him a lot."  
  
"Daichi," Sugawara says sternly, sending a glare his way. Daichi just grins and holds his hands up in defeat.  
  
"Now now," Takeda regains their attention as he moves to hand Asahi the music, "Lets go ahead and get started shall we? We need to make up for the few days we've had without our bass."

Hinata finds himself paying attention to the bassist throughout the rehearsal, their school never had a bassist since it was such a small program. Asahi was really good as far as he could tell, he sight-read the pieces effortlessly. Although he would admit that Asahi could play a bit louder, it was almost like he doubted his own skills.

At the end of rehearsal, Takeda tells them to work on Danse Bacchanale for the most part, since they wouldn't have class tomorrow.

 

Hinata walks with Kageyama back to their dorm room, "Asahi is pretty good isn't he!"

"Considering he managed to place nationally, yes," Kageyama answers, "I wouldn't know much about bass playing though."

"He could play louder though, especially since it's really the low strings that pull an orchestra together," Hinata muses, "It was kind of hard to differentiate him from the cellos if I'm honest."

Kageyama shrugs, "Maybe he just naturally plays quietly."

"Mm, true," Hinata hums, "Oh well, can we practice later today? I want to make sure I've got the rhythm's right."

"Have you not gotten a tutor yet? They would be able to help you with that sort of thing," Kageyama asks in annoyance, then sighs, "Sure, I need to finish writing a paper for theory but we can practice after that."

"Awesome! Thanks Kageyama!" Hinata exclaims. Every time Kageyama talks about theory, Hinata thinks about how Kageyama doesn't like performance. He resolves to ask him about it later today. After all, they'll certainly have the time if they're going to practice together.

 

* * *

  
  
"I need a break," Hinata whines, stopping as soon as they got to the end of the page.  
  
"Really? It's only been an hour." Kageyama comments, sounding annoyed, but sets his bow down on the stand, then puts his violin on top of his case.  
  
Hinata takes the moment to stretch, after setting down his violin and bow, muttering about how he needs to start stretching before he plays. As he's almost in a back-bend, he remembers that he was going to ask Kageyama about performance.  
  
"So what was that mistake that made you hate performance?" He asks as he straightens up, placing his hands on his hips.  
  
Kageyama starts, looking over at him in surprise before his eyes narrow, "What are you talking about?"  
  
"You said that you made a mistake, which is why you hate performance, out with it," Hinata replies plainly, waving his hand in a way that says 'get on with it.'  
  
Kageyama is silent for such a long time that Hinata is about to ask again, or start complaining. "I bombed an audition."  
  
Hinata raises an eyebrow, "An audition?"  
  
Kageyama glares in response, still sounding annoyed, "Yes, I tried to get into Shiratorizawa Academy, I bombed the audition. I worked on the piece for an entire year, I made it to state with gold ratings, but I didn't get an acceptance letter." He grows angrier the more he talks, making Hinata stare wide eyed at him.  
  
"That's it?"  
  
Kageyama stops, looking blankly at Hinata, "What do you mean 'that's it.'"  
  
Hinata flinches back at the cold tone, "I mean you hate performing because you failed an audition? It was only one audition, it's not like you were repetitively denied."  
  
"I worked on that piece for a year! I knew it by heart, I shouldn't have been capable of screwing it up! Even if I had forgotten it my fingers should've moved on instinct! And yet I managed to mess everything up during the audition, that's not nothing!" Kageyama yells, standing with his hands clenched at his sides.  
  
"That's not what I'm saying!" Hinata yells back, "You got gold ratings at both Division and State contest with that piece right? That's enough to be proud of! It was just one audition!"  
  
Kageyama stares angrily at him, a sharp "tch" the only thing he says in response. He can't seem to formulate what he actually wants to say, brooding in an icy silence that spreads through the room.  
  
"You're a really good player, I wouldn't think you'd stop performing over one mistake," Hinata says coldly, shattering the silence.  
  
"You wouldn't know what it's like, working for an entire year on one piece, for one purpose, playing it for such a long time you're almost worried you're overplaying it, you've got no idea." Kageyama answers harshly.  
  
Hinata takes a deep breath, forcing himself to reply calmly, "I wouldn't know what it's like but I think that it's only logical that you bounce back from something like that,"  
  
"You...damn you," Kageyama growls, running a hand through his hair, "It's not that simple."  
  
Hinata glares for the first time during their argument, growing annoyed with how Kageyama was clinging to such a simple problem, "What do you mean not that simple? You mess up, you realize your mistake, you resolve to do better, you move on. Done."  
  
That strikes Kageyama into silence, and Hinata relaxes as soon as Kageyama sighs in defeat.  
  
"Fine. You're right," He mutters.  
  
Hinata grins, face lighting up, "Now you can't diss performance anymore!"  
  
Kageyama snorts and shakes his head, making Hinata protest that he _definitely_ can't look down on performance anymore.  
  
"Let's just finish this up, I have an early class tomorrow."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am actually Kageyama. That argument? Yeah that was me yelling at myself.  
> We've all felt that way at some point. ;0
> 
> Sugawara playing violin at some point then having to switch to viola is the entire inspiration for this AU I'm not even joking, I thought of that and I was like "well looks like I'll have to build an AU around it." 
> 
> I swear I'll update/post my other Haikyuu stories at some point. Even though we had an entire week off school because of the weather I've barely touched any of my stories. I'm working on it I promise.
> 
> Oh, and I'm glad so many of you guys are enjoying this story! Thank you to those leaving kudos and comments, you guys make my day! (and inspire me to practice)


	4. Hebrides Overture

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My update times are getting worse and worse, and all I can say is that school and everything else is dragging me down. I've been trying to work on updates but focus has been pretty fleeting. (I hope I made this chapter long enough though, any mistakes will be fixed in the morning).
> 
> Anyway, this chapter was inspired by my time at state (two months ago) because there's nothing like being in a gym full of soloists to make you feel inadequate. Also there was the manga update, which is why this is a more Aoba Johsai centered chapter. 
> 
> I don't use suffixes when I write so instead of Iwa-chan I just put Iwa. The Aoba Johsai coach is Sadayuki Mizoguchi so he's the conductor just for simplicity. Also, I only know for certain that there's two first years (Kindaichi and Kunimi), does anyone know if there's anymore?

* * *

 "Get the hell up Oikawa, the freshman start classes today and we need to be there for the chamber group."

Oikawa buries his head in his pillow, mumbling about how mean Iwaizumi is. He flinches back at the light that floods through the room, trying uselessly to hide further under the covers. It's only when Iwaizumi pulls him out of bed and onto the floor that he opens his eyes and forces himself awake.

"It's too early," He groans, brushing back the curls covering his eyes.

"You're the one who suggested the chamber group be earlier in the day," Iwaizumi replies over his shoulder as he walks out of the room. Oikawa makes a face at his back, noticing that Iwaizumi was already dressed and ready to leave.

 "When I said earlier I meant at like eleven, not eight," Oikawa mutters more to himself as he grabs a shirt. Since it had used to be five to eight pm, he'd just wanted it to be more of a mid-day occurrence,  something like noon to three.  
  
"Hurry it up Oikawa, we only have ten more minutes!" Iwaizumi yells from the kitchen.  
  
"I know Iwa," Oikawa shouts back, already finished getting dressed and now trying to calm his mess of hair that had spiked up in cowlicks overnight. In the mirror he can see Iwaizumi walking just to the entrance of his room.  
  
"I swear you primp more than a teenage girl," Iwaizumi accuses, leaning against the doorway. He already has his jacket on and music folder tucked underneath his arm.  
  
"You wouldn't know the importance behind looks Iwa," Oikawa responds brightly, smiling when he sees Iwaizumi scowl. Without letting the other reply, he shrugs on his own jacket and slings his violin case over his shoulder, knowing that his music was already in the pocket. "Let's not be late!"  
  
Iwaizumi snorts, "You're the one who's taking so long."  
  
"There's no need to place the blame on others Iwa," Oikawa chastises. He yelps in surprise and pouts as Iwaizumi punches his shoulder before he pushes Oikawa out of the way so that he could lock the door to their apartment.  
  
They're both quiet on the way to campus, mostly preoccupied with their own thoughts. Iwaizumi doesn't mind it, or find it too odd since he knows that Oikawa doesn't talk as much when he's tired, and the violinist was sure to be since he had been up late (way too late)  practicing last night. By the time they get to campus, class has technically started. Iwaizumi sighs and nudges Oikawa, showing him the time on his phone screen when the other looks over.  
  
"Oh well," Oikawa shrugs, obviously not minding that they were going to be late.  
  
Iwaizumi shakes his head almost with exasperation, "You're going to start setting a bad example to the freshmen."  
  
"Everyone loves me Iwa, you should know that," Oikawa replies teasingly.

"Hopefully they haven't even met you yet, maybe I can convince them you're a horrible person and they shouldn't consort with you," Iwaizumi answers blandly. Ignoring Oikawa's whines of outrage, he drags open the (ridiculously heavy) orchestra room door and walks in, noting with distaste that everyone who was supposed to be there was there.

Only two freshmen are unpacking their cases near the back of the room, glancing up in curiosity when the door opens.

"Oikawa, Iwaizumi, you're late," The teacher, Mizoguchi Sadayuki says distastefully, raising an eyebrow.

"Sorry Mr. Sadayuki, you don't mind right?" Oikawa asks with a laugh. Mr. Sadayuki just rolls his eyes and shakes his head, signalling that he didn't really care. Iwaizumi shuts Oikawa up with a slap to the back of his head, which is answered with a petulant whine.

"Anyway, you two know where to sit, hurry up so we can get everything in order," the teacher says after a few moments.

Oikawa claims first chair, laying his case down beside it and getting everything out quickly with a practiced precision. Iwaizumi lays his bag beside first chair in the cello section and goes to the cello and bass room to retrieve his instrument before sitting down.

"Only two freshmen huh?" Oikawa says, sounding confused.

"We're supposed to be getting more within the next few weeks, the start of the semester was bad timing for quite a few schools," Mr. Sadayuki answers, looking off an attendance sheet and raising an eyebrow, "But there are more gone than I expected."

"They'll probably be here within a few weeks," Issei comments as he adjusts his cello's end-pin, sitting beside Iwaizumi.

"Either way, Kindaichi you can sit beside Takahiro, and Kunimi you'll be a first violin with Oikawa," Mr. Sadayuki lists, glancing up to make sure that the freshmen got it before starting to sort out the music.

Oikawa greets Kunimi with a smile, but is inwardly thinking about how Kageyama isn't amongst the freshmen. He knew that while at Kitagawa Daiichi Kageyama was hellbent on attending Shiratorizawa, the highest music school in the district, but knowing the qualifications needed to get into the school, Oikawa knew it wouldn't have happened.

"We're just sight-reading these for today, I haven't decided which ones we're doing for  Group Contest so we'll pick between these eight," Mr. Sadayuki explains as he passes out the pieces, "And of course with District Contest for soloists in a few months we'll start to look into some pieces for that as well."

Oikawa looks at the pieces with concentration, blindly handing the other copies to Kunimi as he flips through and figures how long it would take them to learn. All of them appeared to be up to par at the least, a month or so at most to learn, he's unsure how long it'll take them to master.

"Seems like fun pieces," He says to Mr. Sadayuki, smiling as he sets them down on the stand.

Having gained Oikawa's approval, Mr. Sadayuki picks out  one of them to start on. "This one may be too easy, but at the least it will be easily mastered. It's based of of [Fingal's Cave](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zcogD-hHEYs&index=13&list=PLPoK68oTWweW9c9B-kCDiRz_QA5G2pH3i) in Europe."

* * *

"I thought Kyotani was going to do orchestra again." It's Iwaizumi who starts the conversation on their walk home, since neither of them have a class scheduled for another few hours.

Oikawa looks thoughtful, "He did say he was, maybe he'll be late back to school like some of the freshmen." At that he gains a sly grin, "Tobio didn't come to Aoba Johsai, I wonder where he went."

Iwaizumi scowls, "Don't be mean Oikawa, Maybe he actually got into Shiratorizawa."

"Ha! No way, Ushijima would've told me," Oikawa answers with a laugh, "Plus there's no way he would've gotten in. Even though he's a  prodigy."

At the cruel tone in Oikawa's voice, Iwaizumi lightly hits his shoulder to shock him out of it, "Well what other schools could he have gone to?"

Oikawa rubs his shoulder but shrugs, "Anywhere else really. Maybe he went to the city, there's supposed to be some good schools there. I know there's a few more around here but I'd doubt a superior player like him would be willing to attend such lowly schools."

Iwaizumi sighs and decides to drop the subject, "You're going to practice again tonight right?"

"Yeah, I need to work through the third page before tomorrow," Oikawa answers, hitching his violin higher up on his shoulder. He glances over at Iwaizumi and notices his concerned look. "I swear I'll be back before curfew tonight."

"You better, I don't want to have to go get you again, it's getting cold," Iwaizumi threatens. Oikawa just laughs at it and nods.

 "Of course Iwa."

* * *

Iwaizumi makes a sound of annoyance and rolls over, looking at the clock on his bedside table. It's electric blue colors tell him that it's three quarters past eleven. Oikawa was supposed to be back an hour ago, and he had left around seven to practice. The only reason Iwaizumi was awake was because he was used to Oikawa waking him up by getting back to their apartment. 

After a few intense seconds of self-debate, Iwaizumi forces himself out of bed and pulls together an outfit, making sure to grab a heavy jacket before hurrying out the door. The campus curfew was only so that the people in the dorms wouldn't go wandering around too much during the night, so Iwaizumi would still be able to get in. Oikawa never pays attention to the time when he's practicing, no matter how much he says that he does.

He only starts getting cold as he's walking onto the campus, making his way to the practice building. He keeps his hands in his pockets and watches for any of the people who would be patrolling the grounds. It's not like they'd pose a problem for him, he'd just say he was going to get Oikawa, it wasn't the first time it'd happened.

If the lights had been completely turned off in the practice building, he would've found the surroundings to be more eerie, however they were only turned to the darkest setting, still casting a dim light through the halls. His footsteps echo hollowly on the walls as he makes his way to the second floor, knowing which room Oikawa was in already.

A familiar melody seeps out from the mostly soundproof room, and Iwaizumi pauses just beside the door, avoiding the small window, but leaning close enough to hear the solo Oikawa had been working on for months. Everything sounds as it should, grace notes sliding into the harmonics, no unnecessary slides into the higher positions, the transitions smooth-

Except for that one. He frowns as he realizes what's Oikawa's doing when the violinist curses and starts again. From the beginning. It sounds amazing, until a note gets muddled, then there's another stream of growled curses, and Oikawa begins again.

Iwaizumi lets this happen three more times before he gets pissed off, slamming open the door and startling Oikawa into stopping.

"Iwa-?" Oikawa starts to say before he's cut off by Iwaizumi walking forward.

"That's enough," Iwaizumi states calmly, yet with a harsh tone as he grabs Oikawa's bow arm.

"Not until I get this part," Oikawa shoots back immediately. Iwaizumi recognizes the concentrated look on his face, and scowls.   
  
"No, you're done." With that he tightens his grip until Oikawa drops his bow, then lets him go, grabbing the bow and loosening the hair.   
  
"Iwa-no I have to get it right!" Oikawa insists angrily, glaring at Iwaizumi.

 Iwaizumi's glare has more effect. "You're overworking yourself dumbass, I won't have you sick or hurt." He holds out his hand for the violin clutched in Oikawa's grip, and only has to wait a few seconds until it's handed over. He packs up Oikawa's case, ignoring how dejected Oikawa seems and simply pushing the case to his chest when he's done. He starts walking back down the hall without looking to see if Oikawa was following, and after only a few seconds he can hear footsteps behind him.   
  
It's only when they're nearly to their apartment that Iwaizumi speaks, "You can't do this Oikawa, not just as the semester is starting. You'll get hurt before the contest or be too sick to play," Iwaizumi growls quietly after the tense silence had started to get to him.   
  
"But I have to get it perfect Iwa, it needs to be the best it can," Oikawa replies stubbornly, pouting slightly.   
  
Iwaizumi turns to him with a scowl, making Oikawa stop in his tracks. The cold starts to easily seep through their clothing.   
  
"It's already perfect, you don't have to work on it anymore," Iwaizumi answers.  
  
"How can you say that! It's nowhere near perfect! The transitions aren't smooth enough and my harmonics are only right half the time-" Oikawa protests, angrily taking a few steps closer. Iwaizumi doesn't let him say anything else, cutting him off with a harsh slap. Oikawa stands in shock for a few moments, staring blankly at the ground.   
  
"If you don't believe that it's perfect then it never will be, dumbass!" Iwaizumi yells, fists clenched as Oikawa slowly turns his head towards him. Red tinges the side of his face, which Oikawa covers with the hand not holding his violin case.   
  
Iwaizumi tries to calm down, seeing the realization slowly spread across Oikawa's features. "Do you get it now?"  
  
"I get it Iwa...but did you really have to hit me?" The last part is said in exasperation as Oikawa rubs at his cheek.   
  
"Yes, now come on, you need to sleep before classes in the morning, we can't be late again," Iwaizumi growls in response, gripping Oikawa's arm until they're back in the apartment.


	5. When Summer's In the Meadow

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alright so this chapter was SUPPOSED to get the other schools involved, however it ended up being much longer than I estimated so I unfortunately had to split it in half. But I did manage to get in some mentions of Kiyoko, Yachi, and Ukai. 
> 
> I realize that college probably doesn't have 'contest' but oh well. Also, these pieces are definitely not college level, they’re almost moderate highschool level to be completely honest. 
> 
> Contest here is held in Febuary, and since the semester started in September I’m going to do a little time skip. If you don’t know the contest scaling, 9 is a perfect score, and 13.5 is the lowest gold that’s available. Then there’s silver and bronze ratings. I think that anything past a 24 is just a participation medal.

* * *

 

 

"As you all should know solo and ensemble contest is coming up in a few months, and since we're such a small chamber group this year we should be able to one group piece together at the least," Takeda announces, "We would most likely do the first movement of St. Paul since that one is relatively short and we’ve been going over it for a bit. It’d only take a little fixing up."

"So we're just going to enter as a group piece?" Daichi asks curiously.

"If that's alright, it's not like you guys have to do it," Takeda says quickly, "Only if you guys are interested will we do it."

"Will we go on to state?" Sugawara inquires, "I'm assuming we'd be in Group I anyway."

Takeda nods, "We'd go to state if we get gold, and I'm sure a lot of you are planning on solo's for the competition anyway, so most of us will already be there."

At the nods of approval, he grins and claps his hands together, "Alright! So lets get started with rehearsal. St. Paul at box eight, then we might read through some of the third movement if we have time." They all start shuffling their music into order, Hinata looking displeased as he eyes the third page of St. Paul's suite. Just as they're preparing to play, Takeda makes a noise of realization as if he’d just remembered something.

"I asked someone to come listen to our pieces and critique, he should be coming in tomorrow. It's mostly to decide what to take for district," He explains as they all look up at him weird.

"Who is it?" Nishinoya asks, "Is it that teacher from the neighboring college?"

Takeda smiles almost mischievously, "No no, you'll see who it is tomorrow. Now come on, at box eight."

 

* * *

 

"Wonder who the person is who's going to listen to us," Hinata muses, walking beside Kageyama back to their dorm.

"We'll find out tomorrow," Kageyama replies blandly.

Hinata groans in annoyance, "But aren't you the least bit curious? What if it's a really good musician, ooh ooh or perhaps someone from the other music departments or something!"

Kageyama looks over at him and rolls his eyes, "What's the point of wondering if we're just going to find out tomorrow?"

"You're no fun," Hinata pouts, crossing his arms over his chest petulantly.

"At least I'm not childish, why don't you work off some of that excess energy by practicing or something," Kageyama scoffs, opening the door to their room and tossing his violin onto his bed.

Hinata puts his stuff beside his bed and collapses on top of it with a sigh, burying his face in the covers. After a few moments of just laying there, he decides to follow Kageyama’s advice. He stands up abruptly, earning a raised-eyebrow look from Kageyama who’s sitting on his bed, typing on his laptop. He stops paying attention again once Hinata gathers together his music and case before walking out the door.

 

* * *

 

 

“Are you planning on doing a solo this year?" Suga asks Daichi as they're walking out of the classroom.

"I'm not sure, I was planning on it, but I’m not sure if I’ll be able to get the piece together in time,” Daichi answers, sounding sort of disappointed.

Sugawara bumps his shoulder, “Come on, you can sight read a piece almost perfectly, like you couldn’t improvise if you had to,” He jokes with a sly grin.

Daichi huffs, “You know it’s not that easy Suga, besides, if I decide to do a solo I’ll be able to master it pretty decently within a few days."

“Yeah yeah,” Sugawara says dismally with a slight wave of his hand, “You’re perfectly capable of something as simple as that.”

Daichi laughs quietly, but goes silent after a few moments. “You know, we could always play a duet again,” He offers as they get to their dorm room. Suga turns his head quickly, frowning in disapproval.

“You know I can’t do that anymore Daichi, I’m strictly viola now.”

Daichi holds his hands up in surrender, “I know I know, just letting you know that that option is there.”

Sugawara shakes his head, “I would love to do a duet again, but I shouldn’t. Besides, it would be a bit much for you if you were cramming a solo and a duet.”

“Psh, that’d be a piece of cake,” Daichi responds jokingly, ignoring Suga’s slight glare, “But yeah I get it.” He pauses, putting his music folders away before turning back to Sugawara. “Are you going to be doing a solo?”

Sugawara shakes his head, “I really didn’t feel like it,” he leaves it at that, and so does Daichi.

 

* * *

 

Hinata practically skips into the classroom, grinning happily as he hums the ending to his solo. He walks over to his seat, setting down his bag and case almost without noticing the unfamiliar man standing at the podium. When he finally does see him, he gasps in surprise.

“Who’re you? Are you the guy who’s going to judge our playing?” He asks excitedly. The man looks up from the scores he’s scanning over, raising an eyebrow as Hinata bounces with a wide grin.

“Yeah, Takeda asked me to come in,” The man answers plainly, just returning to looking over the score. Hinata tilts his head, this guy seems pretty familiar but he isn’t quite sure how.

Figuring that he’d rather just focus on the music, Hinata shrugs and begins to unpack, only half listening to the conversation Nishinoya and Tanaka were having about how to properly stab someone with a bow, as well as a debating whether a Brazilian wood or a carbon fiber bow would do more damage (he thinks the carbon fiber would, but despite how entertaining the conversation was he didn’t really want to get involved.)

Kageyama comes in with a scowl on his face, which is only joined with a raised eyebrow when Hinata exclaims that the person who's going to listen to them is here. Everyone is sitting in their seats ready by the time Takeda rushes in, huffing in annoyance to himself when he notices how everyone is looking at him.

“I swear that copier hates me!” He says in defense, brandishing the copied papers in one hand while the other is raised in a ‘don’t shoot the messenger’ fashion.

“Well it’s already ten after the designated class start time, you’ve been later,” Daichi comments, grinning at Takeda’s expression.

“Either way,” Takeda turns to their guest, “Sorry for being late, what do you think of the pieces?”

He shrugs, “They all seem easy enough, I’m sure this group will excel with all of them.”

Takeda sighs in relief at his approval, “Ok guys, this is Keishin Ukai, the grandson of the retired director here.”

“Whoa really?" Sugawara says in amazement, "Did you play Mr. Ukai?”

“I did play, but I didn’t major in music. I was mainly violin, but I picked up cello in college,” Ukai answers.

Takeda sets the contest solo forms on the table before hopping up to the podium, “You can grab those before class ends, I’ll need both the form and money before the end of next week, and the group piece will end up being two dollars a piece. And with that, lets start with the Suite, then we can run through Bacchanale.”

 

* * *

 

 The class ends before Takeda approaches Ukai, who’d been sitting near the back wall through the two hours of practice.

“So, what was your verdict?” He asks almost jokingly.

Ukai quirks a small smile, “Well you’ve certainly got a good group to work with. I think the Suite piece will be perfect for a small district contest, even for state it’ll be sure to get good ratings. There are a few things I noticed though, you can address them about it tomorrow.” He hands Takeda a piece of paper with scrawled notes. Takeda scans over it, eyebrows furrowed.

“It’s nothing major believe me,” Ukai assures, “Just things like the viola section leader’s hand positions are shifting together, he’s clearly used to a different instrument. It ends up making the notes muddy. Your bassist needs to be a bit louder and more confident. The two cellists aren’t completely in sync, which they just need a little bit of work on. And the first stand first violins also need to sync up better. The seconds are actually perfect so no issue there. Those are the main things that I noticed, and they should be easily fixed actually.”

Takeda smiles in thanks, “You’re amazing Ukai, I’ll have to force you to come in more often.”

“Hell no, this is a one time thing, I don’t really even play anymore,” Ukai replies firmly, then notices Takeda’s over exaggerated moping expression, “Ok ok geez, if you just absolutely need my opinion then I might come in.”

“Thank you!” Takeda grins, “Seriously though, thank you for this, I’ll tell you how we do at contest.”

“I’ll look forward to it.”

 

* * *

 

-A few months later-

 

.Hinata tries to smother his yawn, rubbing his eyes in another poor attempt to wake up. Kageyama had forced him up at some time before six. He needed to get up that early anyway, but he’s still exhausted. It’s not his fault that contest is so far out and their times are so early. At least Kageyama had decided to drive, at this point he probably would’ve gotten them both lost.

“How long till we get there?” He asks through another yawn, still not recognizing any of the scattered buildings they’re going past. He’d only been to the solo-ensemble location once, and that was a year ago so he didn’t remember it well.

“Maybe twenty minutes, we didn’t even hit traffic so we’ll be a little bit earlier than planned,” Kageyama answers. Hinata sighs and slides down further in his seat. At least he’d opted to not put on his suit until he got to the building. That was by far his least favorite part of playing. Looking professional was uncomfortable.

He pulls a folded paper out of his pocket, looking over it yet again even though he’d practically memorized all of the information with all the times he’d looked at it out of boredom. He had highlighted all of the times for the people in Karasuno performing solos, including the group piece that was included in a list of others on the back.

He didn’t like having an early time, but Kageyama said that earlier solo times are better because there’s a less likely chance that someone else will have played the same solo. It made sense, but Hinata wondered if it was really worth it since they had to get ready by the break of dawn.

 

* * *

 

“Hinata we’re here,” Kageyama sounds annoyed, and Hinata realizes he’d zoned out during the car ride. He grins and laughs an apology, bounding from the car in the joys of being able to stretch out a bit more. After closing the car door, he turns around to look at the school.

“Wow,” He says in awe, staring with wide eyes, “It’s huge.” The high school already had a majority of its parking lot filled, even though it was only around eight thirty a.m., and there were many performers heading inside with clothes draped over their arms and instrument cases gripped in their hands. Looking closely at a few of them, he realizes that the band department must also be holding their contests in the same building this year.  If he remembered right, usually they took place in a separate building.

“Don’t just stand there and stare, it’s creepy,” Kageyama grumbles, “Come on and grab your stuff so we can get inside.”

“Oh yeah,” Hinata pulls his case from the backseat, unhooking his tux from the door to tuck it over his arm. He chooses to ignore the ‘creepy’ comment, since really Kageyama would be the creepy one.

He follows Kageyama through the parking lot, unable to figure out what he should focus on more, the people or the building. There were some pretty young kids around as well, some that could only be in elementary school. He grins, thinking that if he’d been playing when he was that young he would’ve tried to enter with contest too.

“So where do we put our stuff again?” Hinata asks as they walk inside, barely avoiding running into someone as they hurry past.

“There’s a practice room, 121-122, it’s where everyone goes,” Kageyama replies, still leading the way down the hall.

“Where everyone goes? Really?” Hinata says, glancing around wide eyed. There were quite a lot of musicians here, he didn’t really think that all of them would fit in one room.

“It’s a decently sized room, since it’s two rooms combined,” Kageyama replies boredly, “Plus throughout the day people are leaving after their solos or groups are done so there’s always more room being made.”

Hinata nods, moving behind Kageyama to avoid more people that are walking down the hall. He begins to hear the sound of practicing, and tries to locate where the sound’s coming from. As he follows Kageyama into the room, he doesn’t expect him to stop dead just inside of the entrance.

“Hey!” He says in annoyance, to which Kageyama just moves quickly off to the side, not saying anything as to why he stopped. Hinata doesn’t take a moment to berate him, instead looking around the room. It’s completely packed with performers, all of the tabletop space occupied with cases and music. No one notices the new arrivals as they’re all too absorbed in their own music.

Hinata scopes out an open space on a table not too far from the door and darts forward to lay his case down, grinning to himself. The group that had been at the table is apparently leaving, which also gives Kageyama a space to lay down his case as well.

“Your music or mine?” Hinata asks as he puts on his shoulder rest, making minute adjustments as he waits for a response. When he doesn’t get an answer he looks up with a slight glare, “Oi Kageyama!”

“What?” Kageyama snaps, jerking his gaze away from someone across the room to give Hinata an angry look.

Hinata flinches back slightly, pouting, “Your music or mine?”

“Oh,” Kageyama shrugs, “Yours I guess.”

Hinata gives Kageyama a look before turning away and digging out the group piece, along with his solo. His solo was at 9:16, and Kageyama’s was at 9:23 which is why they came together. Even though it was so early, there was so many people here. And the group piece wasn’t even until 2:12, which means they have a while to wait.

He casts another glance at Kageyama, seeing him once again watching someone across the room. Hinata carefully follows his gaze, figuring that he’s looking at a cellist who’s clearly working through a solo. Hinata looks between the cellist and Kageyama before shrugging and turning back to where he’d laid his music out on the inside of his open case.

As a rule, he never practices his solo before performing it, so he only focuses on the group piece. Although he does keep sending looks to Kageyama, who although had gotten out his violin finally, still looked over to where the cellist is. ‘Guess he knows him,’ Hinata thinks absently, zoning out as he finishes playing through the end of the piece, barely hearing himself through the cacophony of the other musicians. He checks his phone, noting that he’s got about half an hour.

“I’m going to go change,” Hinata says, “Shouldn’t you change too since your solo is soon after mine?”

Kageyama stops playing through one of their pieces to look down at their folded clothes on the table, then sighs. “Yeah.”

Hinata rolls his eyes and gathers his things, not waiting for Kageyama to follow him. He sort of remembered the school now so he knew which hallway to turn down to get to the restrooms. Inside there were other guys changing into their suits, almost all of them complaining at different levels of annoyance.

Hinata takes off his t-shirt to put on the button on dress top, he’d worn the dress pants so he didn’t need to change out of jeans. Kageyama is already tying his necktie by the time Hinata has finished folding up his sleeves and buttoning his shirt. He looks at Hinata with a raised eyebrow when Hinata looks lost as he holds the bow tie.

“Give it here,” He says, holding out a hand until Hinata reluctantly hands it over.

“Don’t try to choke me, there are witnesses here,” Hinata threatens as Kageyama gently hangs the bow tie around his neck.

“Like I would try to murder you out in the open,” Kageyama snorts, smirking when Hinata pales. Before Hinata could try to pull away from him he’s already tied it and positioned it properly, also fixing Hinata’s collar because it’s not folded over right. He ignores the look Hinata gives him and instead folds his shirt over his arm and walks out.

Hinata huffs and follows after him, knowing that it’s probably about time to check into his room. After glancing at his phone he realizes that he really probably should. After setting down his clothes, he turns to Kageyama.

“I’m going to go check in, see if they’re running early or late, you’re in the room beside mine right?” He says as he gathers together the music and score, checking again to make sure that the measures were all numbered before tucking his violin under his arm and looking at Kageyama.

“Yeah,” Kageyama replies, absently plucking out something on his violin.

“Well, do you want to check in?” Hinata asks, getting annoyed with how unfocused Kageyama is once he’s back in the practice room. So what if he knew that cellist, he could at least answer him.

Kageyama thinks for a moment before sighing, “Might as well.” He partially packs up his violin before following Hinata out into the almost silent hallways. There’s a few people standing outside the other rooms as they move towards the more secluded hallways, and the hall moderators are all sitting in individual wooden desks watching those walking around.

“Hinata Shouyou, my time is 9:16,” He says to the monitor as he gets to the room at the end of the hall. He watches her scan down the long list of names and place a mark by his.

“You’re in luck, we’re ahead of schedule for this room,” She smiles at him, “You can go on in if you’ve got everything, your piano accompaniment played for the performer before you so she’s still inside.”

Hinata thanks her with a smile of his own and looks at Kageyama, “You can head back to the practice  room if you want,” He doesn’t wait to listen to Kageyama’s response, instead just going inside and shutting the door carefully behind him.

Kageyama remains standing in the hall, only moving to check into his room before returning to standing just outside. He only half listens to Hinata’s playing, more focused on other thoughts. Iwaizumi had been in the practice room, meaning that Oikawa was here too, he just wasn’t there at the moment. He knew that Oikawa would be there even without looking over the list of soloists, but he still wasn’t quite prepared for the fact that he could run into him at any given moment. It wasn’t exactly a big school.

He looks up from the ground as the door opens, seeing Hinata step out with a nervous looking smile on his face, Kiyoko following behind him . Hinata is practically vibrating with nervous energy as he waits for the judge to bring out the score. At this point, there are more people waiting in the hallway for their solos, and Kageyama feels a bit more anxious about the fact that Oikawa could show up.

The judge walks out and hands the music score and score sheet to the hall monitor, who marks down the rating before handing it to Hinata with a smile and a “Congratulations.”

Hinata once again thanks her, not looking at the score sheet until they’re almost back to the practice room. He gasps happily, “Kageyama I got a 10! That’s two points from perfect!”

“Nice job,” Kageyama replies, not seeing Hinata’s pout at his bland praise.

“I’ll wait for you to play, then we can go get our medals together,” Hinata says once they’re in the practice room, once again surrounded by the almost deafening noise of a room full of musicians playing at once.

“Yeah sure,” Kageyama says, looking around the room and relaxing when he still doesn’t see Oikawa. He notices that Sugawara and Daichi are standing by the table where their stuff was, and Hinata  greets them happily, showing them his score when they ask.

Kageyama gathers together his own things and gives one last cursory glance around the room, frowning when he realizes that Iwaizumi is no longer there. A glance at his watch told him that he didn’t exactly have time to muse about where he’d gone.

“I’m leaving Hinata,” He says, walking quickly out of the room without waiting to see if Hinata was following.

The halls have grown more crowded as more groups have shown up, and significantly less quiet even with the many signs proclaiming “PLEASE BE QUIET IN THE HALLS”. They both have to take care to weave between the people walking to and from their performances, or even just the family members waiting around until their children play.

Between the ten or so minutes that Kageyama signed in, his room had gotten about five minutes behind. However he wasn’t about to go back to the practice room where there was a greater chance of seeing Oikawa, so he and Hinata stood outside and waited. Plus he would have to wait for Kiyoko either way. She was one of the main accompaniments for many performers, along with her pupil Yachi who was almost of equal talent to the senior. The both of them have to run around quite a lot on contest days.

“Alright, Kageyama it’s your turn, Kiyoko is already inside,” The monitor says, glancing up to see him leaning against the lockers. Kageyama just nods, sending a glance over at Hinata, before walking inside.

* * *

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> btw finally got my other story that I'd been working on posted ;0
> 
> Sorry for how split up this chapter ended up being, hopefully the next one will have better transitions. There're probably a lot of mistakes too but I've read over this too many times to catch them, I'll fix any that I notice.


	6. Russian Easter Overture

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There are many links in this chapter, the endnote contains explanation for Oikawa's solo.  
> St. Pauls Suite (timestamp is 9:27 for the 4th movement, beginning to 3:05 for 1st movement)  
> Mendelssohn Concerto (All thirteen minutes of it is beautiful, but at least listen to 5:20 or so if you don't want to sit through the whole thing) (and the first six seconds of it are silent so just wait for it)  
> Russian Easter Overture (You can listen to an arranged version on it on JWPepper if you'd rather hear 4 minutes instead of 14) 
> 
> I'll have to return to edit this because I've read over it way too many times for one day.

 

* * *

 

 

“So so so, what’d you get!” Hinata asks eagerly as they’re walking down the hallway, wondering why Kageyama seemed so angry after looking at his score.

“9.5,” He states quietly after he’d had enough of Hinata’s begging and pestering that was too loud for the intended to be quiet halls.

“Are you serious!” Hinata exclaims in awe, “That’s basically perfect! I mean even from the hallway you sounded good like gwah! But that’s amazing!”

“Yeah yeah,” Kageyama remarks blandly , “Let my put up my violin then we can go get our medals.”

Hinata furrows his eyebrows in confusion. A 9.5 is a really good score, literally .5 from perfect, and yet Kageyama seemed very displeased with it. He doesn’t understand how, after all Kageyama is a very skilled player and got a great score because of it. In the end he decides that Kageyama must be very critical of himself. He follows quietly behind Kageyama as they make their way to the practice room, figuring that Kageyama would probably stew about his score until he eventually figures out that it isn’t actually bad.

Walking into the practice room, they see that almost everyone in their chamber group had shown up, managing to stay mostly at the same table which was full at this point.

“How’d you do Kageyama?” Sugawara asks when he notices them both walk in.

“9.5,” He replies in that same quiet brooding tone.

Sugawara’s expression is shocked for a moment before he grins and claps him on the shoulder, “That’s great! You got such a high score!”

“Yeah yeah,” Kageyama mutters, moving to set his violin on top of his case. Sugawara gives Hinata a confused look behind Kageyama’s back and Hinata just responds with a panicked ‘I don’t know either’ shrug.

“Well come back here after you two go get your medals, once Asahi gets here we’re going to try to run through the group piece if we've got enough time,” Sugawara says as Kageyama finishes putting away the original copy of his solo.

“Alright!” Hinata answers for them both, grinning as he leads the way out of the room. He glances back to make sure that Kageyama is following, but other than that doesn’t check again until he proudly hands the attendant at the medals table his score.

“Congratulations,” the man says with a smile as he hands over the medal. Hinata chirps out a thanks and pins it onto his pocket, stepping back out of the way to wait for Kageyama.

“You’re not putting on your medal?” He asks as he sees Kageyama slip it into his breast pocket with that ever present scowl

“I don’t like wearing my medals,” Kageyama replies.

“Okay…” Hinata says dubiously, letting the subject drop despite the fact that he finds it really weird.

They see that everyone is there as they walk back into the practice room, although Daichi tells them that they’ll have to wait a bit more till they practice their group piece together since Tsukishima had to go play his solo, along with Asahi who’d have to go play in a few minutes.

“We’ll group up around twelve-thirty, by that point all of us should have played our solos or duets.”

 

* * *

 

 

Since they had a good two hours to waste, Kageyama and Hinata decided it’d be a good idea to go out to lunch, especially since they’d barely eaten breakfast. And they knew their instruments would be safe since at least two members of their group would be staying in the practice room at one time.

“So who was that cellist that you were watching?” Hinata asks out of the blue after they’d gotten their food. They're sitting in the car as they eat their sandwiches since the eat-in area of the food place had been really crowded.

“Huh?” Kageyama says not-very-eloquently, staring at Hinata in confusion.

“You were watching a cellist in the practice room, did you know him or something?”  Hinata tries to clarify, waving his hand around vaguely.

Kageyama seems to realize who he’s talking about, “Oh, him, he was just a friend of someone I knew in highschool.”

“Well then why didn’t you go talk to them? You still knew them right?” Hinata says dubiously.

“Yeah I knew him but I wouldn’t say that we were on good terms, it would be weird to just walk up to him and start chatting,” Kageyama replies, already starting to look frustrated with the conversation.

“Technically it wouldn’t be that weird, but ok,” Hinata mumbles, picking at what’s left of his food, once again letting it drop despite the fact that he really wants to dig deeper to find out what keeps bothering Kageyama.They finish their meal in a tense silence, which is only ends as they leave. They waste a little more time as Kageyama drives around the town, showing Hinata little things about it as well as showing him the best shortcuts. As they return to the school (having to park much further away as it had gotten more crowded), they make their way back to the practice room, and find that everyone else was already there and practicing separately on their parts.

“Ah, glad to see the two of you back, were just about to start without you,” Sugawara says as he spots them. “Go ahead and get your stuff out, we’ll run through it when the two of you are ready.”

They start to get out their things, however their attention is distracted as another group begins a run through of their piece. Even though the room was full of soloists practicing with an attention that means nothing will distract them, the sound of the group clearly carries across the large space.

“Hey isn’t that…” Daichi starts to ask with furrowed brows, looking over at Sugawara.

“Yeah, that’s the fourth movement of [St. Paul](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pRRtmrjWsPE&index=10&list=PLPoK68oTWweW9c9B-kCDiRz_QA5G2pH3i),” Sugawara says, looking just as confused.

“What school is it? Can you tell?” Asahi asks, not recognizing any of the players from the angle he’s standing at.

Hinata glances over at Kageyama, and notices his tight expression, nearly glaring at the group. “It’s Aoba Johsai,” He says tensely.

“Wow really?” Sugawara says in surprise, scanning over the people in the group and still not really recognizing anyone, although it didn’t help that everyone is facing away from them.

“Yeah, Oikawa Tooru is the first chair, the guy near to the door, across from him is Iwaizumi Hajime, I could tell you all the others but I think you get the idea,” Kageyama replies grudgingly.

They know when the piece ends, and they feel the silence that the groups playing had left, that dissipates almost immediately as the other musicians fill the emptiness. The Karasuno group watches out of the corner of their eyes as Aoba Johsai’s musicians gathers together their music and leaves the practice room.

Kageyama almost visibly lets out a breath, relaxing a bit as he finishes putting together his violin and helps Hinata set out the music as the rest of the group gets themselves set.

"Well lets run through our piece," Daichi says, drawing their attention away from the leaving group and back to the task on hand. They run through their piece the best they can while barely being able to hear each other, but don't have enough time to do another quick run through as Takeda returns, telling them that it's time to head down to the auditorium.

There are other groups eying them as they walk ahead to the front of those who had lined up along the wall already as Takeda says a word to the monitor and they're lead into the hallway behind the auditorium.

"Karasuno college playing St. Paul's Suite, First Movement."

Hinata feels like he botches the first part of it although that may have just been because he felt so nervous for the first part of it. They were a pretty small group considering the size of the others that they'd passed in the halls.  
They go to wait backstage, another group coming up to start setting up the stage for their needs, as they wait for the judges scores. Although they had a lot of confidence in the fact that they'd get gold, it was just curiosity of their numerical points that kept them anxious. 

"Congratulations," The monitor backstage whispers to them as she hands over the envelope with their scores over to Takeda. The group waits until they're almost to the practice room to start pestering Takeda, since he still hadn't opened the scoresheet. Much to all of their delight, they'd gotten a 10. 

“Before you all take off, remember that we'll have class again on Monday. I’ll have the group piece medals for you then, other than that you can go ahead and leave,” Takeda tells them.

“Thank fucking god,” Tanaka says, he and Noya are the first to hurry over to their cases and begin packing away their instruments, simultaneously taking off their suit jackets and loosening their ties as they do so. The rest of the group follows their example, albeit a bit more calmly, taking off their jackets and draping them over arms or shoulders (it had gotten progressively warmer as the day went on so finally taking off the layers was a relief.)

“I’m gonna go change back into my t-shirt,” Hinata tells Kageyama, grabbing his clothes from where they’d been sitting beside his case.

“I’ll pack up your stuff,” Kageyama replies, already deciding to just take off his suit jacket instead of full out changing since that'd be too much trouble. Plus someone had to get their stuff together.

“Alright thanks!” Hinata chirps, darting out of the room. Kageyama quickly packs their stuff away, slinging his violin case over his shoulder and holding Hinata’s in his opposite hand, his suit jacket draped over that arm.

He isn’t paying attention as he’s walking out of the room, which he bets he will regret for the rest of his life, as after taking about five steps he slams into someone. He loses his balance, stumbling back a few steps before regaining it with a shaky sigh of relief.

“Oww…” The person he'd run into groans, and Kageyama looks up, opening his mouth to apologize before he recognizes who it is.

“You should know better than to not pay attention Tobio, you could’ve killed me!” Oikawa exclaims, wincing slightly as he lightly rubs at his chest, taking care not to mess up his suit.

“Falling wouldn’t kill you,” Kageyama mutters, hitching his violin case higher up on his shoulder and looking for a path of escape.

“The possibility is always there, and what if I’d been holding my violin? Running into me like you did surely would’ve broken it, then you would have to add $12,000 to your huge pile of debt,” Oikawa continues to say, putting a hand on his waist and using his other hand to emphasize what he's saying.

“Well I didn’t mean to run into you,” Kageyama shoots back, not really wanting to listen to Oikawa talk anymore.

“I didn’t hear you apologizing,” Oikawa replies smartly, smiling as he sees Kageyama scowl, “So _clearly_ you did it on purpose.”

“Fine if it’ll shut you up I’ll apologize,” Kageyama snarls, more and more tempted to just storm past him to meet Hinata at the front entrance.

“I’m all ears,” Oikawa cups a hand behind his ear in exaggeration and leans forward slightly. Kageyama scowls and opens his mouth to _actually_ apologize, but doesn’t have to as Oikawa is suddenly stumbling forward, rubbing at the back of his head. He stands up straight and turns to look behind him with a pout.

“What’d you do that for Iwa? That hurt,” He whines, still rubbing at his head.

“Stop tormenting people. I let you out of my sight for a second and you’re already causing trouble,” Iwaizumi grumbles, carefully holding onto his cello as he stands beside Oikawa.

“I’m not a child Iwa,” Oikawa retorts, crossing his arms petulantly.

“You sure act enough like one,” Iwaizumi says, then turning to Kageyama before Oikawa has any time to respond, “Nice to see you Kageyama. So what college did you end up going to?”

“Karasuno,” Kageyama replies shortly, a little more comfortable with Iwaizumi there, but still wanting to leave because Oikawa is staring at him with analyzing eyes.

“That’s a nice school, you did a solo and an ensemble right? How’d you do?” Iwaizumi says, looking thoughtful.

“Gold with both,” Kageyama replies, not missing Oikawa’s slight smirk. He feels his phone buzzing in his pocket ans has a feeling it’s Hinata asking where the hell he is.

“Nice job,” Iwaizumi compliments.

“I bet I’ll one up you Tobio,” Oikawa jeers with a wide grin, “I’m going to play my solo right now.”

“Hey,” Iwaizumi warns, glaring at Oikawa who quickly holds up his hands in surrender.

“It was an absolute lovely experience talking to you again Tobio, but I must be off now. Don’t miss me too much,” Oikawa says cheerfully as he lowers his hands, “Be sure to watch where you’re going as you’re leaving!”

Kageyama doesn’t say anything to that, just quickly walking past the both of them and hurrying to the front where he sees Hinata standing with his arms crossed and an annoyed look on his face.

“There you are! Took you long enough!-” Hinata begins to complain, but is cut off as Kageyama shoves both of their violin cases at him, as well as the car keys.

“Go start up the car, I’ll be right back,” Kageyama says quickly, not giving an explanation or time for Hinata to answer as he turns around and hurries back to the practice room. He’s at the end of the hall leading up to the practice room when he sees Oikawa and Iwaizumi leave the room. He carefully follows far behind them, managing to see where they’re going only by pure luck. He almost gets too close before he realizes that the two of them are waiting outside of a performance room. He stands hidden behind the corner, still able to hear since the room is quite close to him.

“Alright Oikawa Tooru, you can go ahead,” The monitor says, gesturing towards the open door. Kageyama waits until he knows the door is closed so that he can get closer to the room. No one looks twice at him as he 'casually' leans against the wall so that he can peer through the small window on the door. He can see Iwaizumi sitting in one of the chairs near the wall, as well as Oikawa facing away from him, gracefully bringing his violin up and preparing to play.

Kageyama hadn’t known what to expect when Oikawa started playing. He remembered how amazing Oikawa had been in highschool, but there was easily leagues of difference between then and now, it had been almost three years. He thinks that the piece is by [Mendelssohn](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Felix_Mendelssohn_-_Violinkonzert_e-moll_-_1._Allegro_molto_appassionato.ogg), a concerto if he hears right. He has to force himself to remain calm faced (and not show how amazed he actually is) as Oikawa speeds through the beginning part of it.

Ten minutes pass before Kageyama realizes that he needs to leave before Oikawa finishes, since most the piece shouldn't be too much longer, which results in him very hurriedly leaving the hall and the building itself. He only slows his walking pace when he’s walking through the parking lot towards the car.

“Ok seriously what took you so long? That was almost ten minutes.” Hinata gripes as Kageyama climbs into the car, taking off his tie and tossing it in the backseat with his tie.

“I ran into Oikawa,” Kageyama replies shortly, not looking at Hinata as he starts driving.

“Woah, did anything happen?” Hinata asks, closely examining Kageyama’s face and figuring that something must’ve if his expression was anything to go off of.

“No of course not. I just hung back so that I could hear his solo,” Kageyama replies.

“And?”

“And what?”

“Was it good?” Hinata asks, almost rolling his eyes at Kageyama’s stupidity.

“Of course it was, don’t you know who Oikawa is?” Kageyama says obviously.

“I’m not completely stupid,” Hinata replies, a bit miffed, “He traveled with the city’s orchestra in high school right? One of his major accomplishments was playing the solos to [ Russian Easter Overture ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rXR0tloMmoo). I think our music class went to see one of his performances.”

“Exactly. So it was amazing, that’s it.”

Hinata looks thoughtful for a moment, "So you went to highschool with Oikawa Tooru, how'd that work?" He muses.

Kageyama frowns, "He was first chair and I was second. I mean our seating audition scores tied a few times, and sometimes I was given the solo's in the pieces to play at the concerts but it wasn't awful."

"So the two of you just peacefully coexisted? That's boring," Hinata grumbles, looking less interested.

"Well he was a junior when I was a freshmen, we only dealt with each other for two years. Not that he didn't antagonize me all the while but it wasn't that bad," Kageyama replies defensively.

"You didn't seem to fond of him when you talked about him earlier," Hinata comments, looking at Kageyama out of the corner of his eyes and noticing his now tense expression. Kageyama doesn't reply to that, so Hinata rolls his eyes and relaxes, sliding down into the seat. He decides that now was not the best time to try to grill Kageyama since he clearly doesn’t want to talk. Oh well, at least he gets to take a nap.

 

* * *

 

  
“What does ‘joint college practice' mean, Takeda?” Hinata asks, staring at the whiteboard.

“There’s a neighboring music college that usually holds a joint practice with Karasuno every few years or so. Although it’s been a few years since we’ve done it because of Mr. Ukai retiring. Especially since he and Mr. Nekomata were the ones who originally came up with the idea. I met Mr. Nekomata at the contest and he invited us to participate in it again this year.” Takeda says proudly.

“Waaah, so we get to play together with their orchestra?” Hinata asks excitedly, “That’s so cool!”

“This weekend we will, we’ll be going to their campus, and it’s mostly for experience. You juniors have done this before with Mr. Ukai right?” Takeda asks, looking over at the lower strings section.

“Only once, before Mr. Ukai retired,” Daichi confirms.

“Right. So our goals with the rehearsal will mostly be or experience, however we’re also  learning how to be more adaptable, and to work on sight-reading skills and overall cohesiveness,” Takeda concludes.

"Isn't their chamber group about the size of ours this year?" Sugawara asks, trying to remember from the last he'd heard.

"Yep! Which is why this practice is perfect." Takeda smiles.

 

* * *

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alright so I've been really vague on everyone's solo's because I'm really lazy and didn't want to do the buttload of research it would take to find individual solo's for every single person. However Oikawa was an exception I made as I was writing this chapter.  
> I'm learning the Mendelssohn Concerto since I'd gotten it about a month ago, and I can safely say that I can see Oikawa working on this piece for hours on end to get it just perfect (because by god I've done it). Its a very tough piece, but also very beautiful which means despite how damn difficult those notes may be, I'd think he'd put in a lot of effort to get it right.  
> (Also the piece is actually 13 pages long, the part Oikawa's playing is just 6.)


End file.
